I just finished listening to I've Been Waiting and I really love this album. I enjoy most of the songs on the album as they are really catchy, but my favorites are Beautiful Face, Guardian Angel and Burning Bridges.  I think Burning Bridges is my favorite track on the whole album. Just a really beautiful song and so simple too. Guardian Angel made me cry the first time I listened to it. Very touching song. Definitely did not waste my money on this album.
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Lauren I just want to say thank you for writing such a beautiful song like Guardian Angel. What a great memory of your aunt. I'm sure she must be smiling down on you. My brother lost his battle to cancer not too long ago and this song just brought everything back. What an emotion filled song. Breathtaking and such wonderful lyrics and the violin and cello. Beautiful. Abosolutely beautiful.
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Boston's Lauren Bateman infuses real life pain, suffering and healing into her debut album, I've Been Waiting.  A chronicle of the heartaches of adulthood, I've Been Waiting explores the loss of love, loved ones and dreams before turning the corner into a new tomorrow.  Bateman's voice is strongly reminiscent of Stevie Nicks; a bit heavy at times, but always engaging.  Bateman recorded I've Been Waiting under the guiding hand of Andy Bauer (Turnt Out Media), incorporating songs she's written over the last seven years.  
 
I've Been Waiting opens with the title track, a catchy, three-chord affair about finding yourself within the light of love.  It's a solid pop tune and a strong introduction for Bateman, whose Stevie Nicks-like alto makes her instantly distinctive.  Bateman adds a bit of Country flavor on “Beautiful Face”.  It's a fairly stereotypical love song, but Bateman's warm alto fills the sum to bursting, even pushing a bit too hard at times.  “Civil Again” laments the after-effects of a relationship gone wrong.  The song is mournful and a bit heavy, getting bogged down in both its own emotional weight and the weight of Bateman's voice.  Some of the same emotional and vocal weight invades “Everything's Okay” as well.  Here the weight is a bit disturbing, as this song carries a very positive message, and Bateman's voice would seem to juxtapose a distinct lack of belief in the lyrics.  The song drags and becomes something of a difficult listen.
 
On “I Gave”, Bateman explores a one-sided relationship from the other side of the relationship veil.  It is edgy, with a great mass of roiling emotion expressed in the instrumentation in the verses.  Bateman offers a more positive feel in the chorus, but the sound remains too top-heavy.  One of the highlights of the album is “Guardian Angel”.  Written for an aunt who died of pancreatic cancer, “Guardian Angel” is an uplifting and loving ode to someone whose flame faltered too soon.  Violin and cello carry the emotion of the song from the depths of sorrow to celebration of life renewed.  Bateman is at her vocal best here.
 
With “Linger”, Bateman dissects a long-distant relationship after it has fallen apart.  The emotional honesty comes from Bateman writing what she knows, the song growing for the end of her first serious relationship.  Bateman's presentation is poetic but avoids falling into the trite categorically.  Bateman also manages to keep her voice lighter here.  “Happy Every After” reflects the yen for a fairy tale relationship that comes true.  Bateman shows off her upper register, and her tone suffers in the upper notes at times, but the effort is solid.  I've Been Waiting closes with the best songwriting and performance on the album on “Burning Bridges”.  “Burning Bridges” is about dealing with loss in its various forms.  At the end of the day, however, Bateman turns to face the sun, setting aside the pain and suffering and looking for a way to live again.  Bateman brings out the nuance in her voice, blending wonderfully with the acoustic guitar and cello.
 
I've Been Waiting is a collection of highs and lows musically.  Lauren Bateman writes from her own life, lending distinctive authenticity to the emotions and ideas expressed.  Some of the material works better than others, but in general the songwriting and performances are solid.  Bateman's voice will grab attention for good or ill.  The vocal proximity to Stevie Nicks will engender comparisons for as longer as Bateman sings publicly, but the heavy quality of her voice is always going to be there.  If Bateman gets a solid feel for how much is too much she's going to do just fine.  I've Been Waiting is a solid introduction to Lauren Bateman, worth spending a little time on.
 
Review by Wildy Haskell
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In her debut LP, “I’ve Been Waiting,” Lauren Bateman introduces herself through music that smacks of Vertical Horizon if a Freshman Melissa Ferrick were at the helm.  For the most part, Bateman shows she is an act worthy of our attention and encouragement.  For good or bad, listening to “I’ve Been Waiting” is like watching “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”  Generally well-crafted underlying material often funnels through an excellent leading player.  Here, Bateman’s natural vocal talent and intuitive rock songwriting are the stars.  But as in the movie, fantastic moments collapse with the performance of weak players, played here by pedestrian lyrics, murky production and hesitant delivery.  Just as a re-cast could have perfected “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” some lyric exercises and a proper producer could have fixed the cracks in this otherwise concrete album.
 
Thankfully, unlike many of her predecessors, Bateman doesn’t beat her voice to bruises in order to be a woman rocker.  With little or no production treatment on her vocals, her voice is pure in tone, even though many times reluctant in delivery.  She has a gift; she’s just not totally comfortable sharing it in a studio setting, a totally forgivable sin.  In songs like “Civil Again,” one can hear how she almost went for the daring dive in the quarry, but got scared at the last minute and retreated from the cliff.  Bateman begins to shake her timidity at the end of “Everything’s OK,” giving the listener a vocal payoff that flirts with a somewhat finicky guitar solo.  

These same steep, intriguing melodic cliffs appear frequently throughout the album.  The chorus hook in “Beautiful Face” is strong, but lonely.  With Bateman’s near-consistent pitch, a greater use of harmony would have been welcome in many of the songs.  Those harmonies show up a bit late to the party, but are invited inside wholehearted on “I Gave.”  Bateman has a few melodic tricks up her sleeve.  For example, the “Happily Ever After” verses start on pleasing, unexpected notes.  Delivered strongly yet never forced, “Happily Ever After” is a highlight of the album.  The clever chorus lyric, “I’ve been chasing after my happy ever after,” surfs like a pro on its giant melodic wave.  Although some of the album’s songs’ pre-choruses could use injections of suspense, Bateman’s melodies display a fundamental understanding of rock construction.

A melody is only as good as its lyrics, though.  Bateman has a nail-biting habit of providing play-by-play therapy session statements of her feelings, rather than drenching the listeners with these feelings’ colors, smells and flavors.  Bateman shows so much inherent musical talent on this album, that it’s a shame to witness how the lyrics in songs like “Linger,” “I Gave,” and “Civil Again,” leave their elemental musical partners feeling like sex-starved lovers.  Fortunately, Bateman’s biggest weakness is nothing that couldn’t be fixed by hard study of the Pat Pattison literary collection.

Every album has its star.  Here, that star is “Guardian Angel.”  The polished production value of “Guardian Angel” alone accelerates this song into a more advanced course than its classmates.  Clearly inspired songwriting and confident delivery make every note and word of this song fanatically believable.  A higher power shows its face in the tiny details of this song’s shine:  purposeful orchestration at the beginning, plucky string surprises over the bridge, and the twinkling pull of a rewarding finish.  “Guardian Angel” is Bateman at her best.  

Where God-given talent is concerned, Bateman clearly has what it takes to become a successful artist, as long as she’s not afraid of the work it will take to refine her craft.

Review by Derek Nicoletto
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